


like stars and comets and meteors (we're gonna last forever)

by thebarrios_best



Category: Troop Zero (2019)
Genre: & hot messes, 1980s, :), Canon Compliant, Christmas is in love with Hell-No, Christmas/Hell-No, F/F, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Hell-No's in love with her too she just doesn't get it, High School, Mutual Pining, Period-Typical Homophobia, Pining, Slow Burn, Troop Zero, absolutely no idea what I'm doing, and my babies, anyway here come the real tags, anyways here we are, as soon as the movie was over I could not get this fic out of my head, good luck me?!, honestly neither does Christmas lmao, honestly this fic is gonna be a fever dream, it's the 80's and we're gay, love me some gay yearning, pretty sure this is the first Troop Zero work on ao3 like ever??, so um, so we just had to write it, there's nothing to go off of, they're 17/18 in this btw, they're both scared, well time to see how this goes, wish me luck!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:20:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23418142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebarrios_best/pseuds/thebarrios_best
Summary: 1986, Wiggly, Alabama.If there's one thing Christmas Flint knows better than anything, it's that in this lonely world, she's got four best friends.If there's a second thing she knows, it's that she's different than everyone else in Wiggly. Everyone else in the world, maybe, for all she can guess.And if there's a third thing she knows, deep down in her bones, as well as she knows Earth's radius and the distance from the Sun to Mars, it's that she'll never stop loving Hell-No Price.She just can't quite figure out what that means yet.
Relationships: Christmas Flint/Hell-No Price
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	like stars and comets and meteors (we're gonna last forever)

**Author's Note:**

> So, let me just say as a quick preface-- I know this may seem a little weird because in the movie they're obviously young children, but I loved the connection between Christmas and Hell-No and this is just a potential future I imagined for them. Personally, I definitely had crushes at the age of nine, and I love the childhood friends to lovers slowburn trope, so, that's what this is. Please remember they're 17/18 in this-- it's meant to be set in their senior year of high school. With that said, I hope you enjoy! <3

If there was one thing Christmas Flint knew better than anything, it was that in this lonely world, she had four best friends.

She also knew that, luckily for her, they'd back her up on pretty much anything. No matter what Christmas got herself into, her friends would be there to have her back. Most of the time, they were involved themselves, and none of them doubted for even a second that any of the others would clean every chicken coop in Wiggly before stabbing one of them in the back.

She was especially grateful for that today.

"She's coming! SHE'S COMING! Go go go go go!" 

Christmas and Smash both jumped in alarm, a feat which proved difficult from their positions on the ground underneath various pieces of furniture. Christmas banged her head, hard, on the bottom of Miss Massey's desk. 

"Ow!" She rubbed her head and glared at the offending strip of wood, then peered back into the darkness underneath. "How is she coming already? Joseph needs some practice with his diversion skills. God, where is it?"

"SHE'S COMING RIGHT NOW! OH, SWEET LORD JESUS HAVE MERCY!" Anne-Marie's squeal was this time accompanied by an anxious jumping-up-and-down sound outside the door. "Guyyyys! _Hurry up_!" 

"Found it!" Smash called triumphantly from where her head and torso were stuffed within a massive file cabinet, emerging with her radio clasped tightly in one hand and what looked like a chocolate bar in the other. Christmas pulled herself out from under the desk with relief, sighing breathlessly,

"Finally!"

Hurriedly they started to shove files and drawers back into their original places, doing their best to right knocked-over furniture and even one strange faux rosebush. 

"GUYS!"

"Okay, we're coming!" Christmas whisper-yelled, deciding they'd done a good enough job with the room. Smash kicked open the door with what Christmas considered more drama than necessary and the two of them smacked face first into a terrified-looking Anne-Marie. 

"You guys took _forever_ in there!"

"Sorry! What hap--"

"I'll explain later," she squawked, "just _run_ _!"_

Without another word, the three of them took off at a breakneck speed, rounding the corner and piling into the library back entrance just in time to see Miss Massey come stalking down the hallway a mile a minute towards her office, followed by a panicked and out-of-breath looking Joseph. The three of them crowded into the dusty door window to watch, Christmas and Smash taking turns ducking behind a shelf and wiggling out of their cinnamon-dusted clothes and changing into the fresh, non-incriminating ones Anne-Marie had ready in her bag. 

"As I was saying, Miss Massey, if you could just stop for _one moment,_ I really need some advice about--"

"And as I was saying, young man, I am quite busy!" She snapped, coming closer and closer to the room they had vacated less than minutes before.

"Please, Miss Massey, it's a matter of, uh, of great urgency, it's really such an awful dilemma and I know you could-- oh, God-- I mean, oh, no, don't--" he panted, limbs flailing as he tried to get in front of her.

"Nothing, and I repeat, _nothing_ could be a matter of such great urgency as what we are about to see, or more specifically, _who_ we are about to see!" She cried, reaching the office door and flinging it open. Both of their mouths dropped open and they stared into the room in shock. Christmas put her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter as she watched them survey the empty, (nearly) spotless office (excepting, of course, the thin layer of cinnamon over most of it). Joseph's panicked, pained expression slowly softened into relief and then a satisfied grin. He turned in realization and caught Christmas' eye through the window, grinning harder as Miss Massey began to splutter. 

"B-but-- I-- I could have _sworn_..." she trailed off in bewilderment before regaining her composure. "Well. Fine. I really must get back to work. Now, what was of such great urgency that it simply could not wait?"

Joseph just grinned at her.

"You know what, I think I've figured it out. Have a good day, Miss Massey." Then he turned on his heel and started to walk down the hallway as she shook her head.

No sooner had Miss Massey disappeared into her office than Christmas heard a crash and a muffled yell and whipped around to see a very mad-looking Hell-No Price stamping down their row of shelves.

"Hey, Hell-No," she grinned.

"Hey," the girl said in response, her angry exterior softening for just a moment into a soft smile. Wisps of hair stuck out of her braids, and there was a tiny streak of blood on her cheek. Christmas frowned, trying to sort out her disheveled appearance. There was another yelp from Hell-No's feet and her smile hardened back into an angry scowl, at which point Christmas realized she was not alone, but in fact seemed to be _dragging_... was that...

"Piper," Christmas said in suspicious confusion. 

"She ratted us out," Hell-No said through gritted teeth. Piper jumped up, brushing off her skirt, looking unusually smug for someone who had just been dragged kicking through a library. 

"I think what _Hell No_ \--" Hell-No rolled her eyes; Christmas knew she hated the way Piper said her name, with a weird amount of space between _hell_ and _no,_ like the syllables were pieces of bone she was disgustedly picking out of her fish, or something, "--meant to say is that I was simply reporting the perpetrators of a case of _vandalism_ and _assault_ committed against our very own Miss Massey, as any _good, honest_ person should feel obligated to do," she drawled.

It was Christmas' turn to roll her eyes.

" _Cinnamon_ is hardly _assault,_ " she fired back.

"And besides, you have no proof it was us!" Anne-Marie piped up from behind her. "You may have sent her running back to the office, but she sure didn't catch us in there. It could just as well have been _you_ who did it, for all the proof she has, couldn't it?"

At that Piper bristled, before crossing her arms and saying, "well, whatever. You and I both know that you're guilty, and I will do whatever I can to prove it." She turned around and stalked out of the library with her nose in the air. This time, all four of them rolled their eyes, turning back to the task at hand. 

"You got it?" Hell-No asked.

"Of course! What do you take us for?" Christmas teased as Smash held up the radio.

"Good. We have to get out of here and go wash those clothes. There's no tracks in there, right?"

"We brushed all the footprints away, _obviously._ " Smash shook her head in exasperation.

"Just checking! We can't be caught this time, or she might _never_ let us out of detention." All four shuddered at the thought of their last stint in detention.

This whole mess had all started three weeks ago when Hell-No had gotten into a big fight at lunch with some boy. She wouldn't tell them what it was about, only that she'd started it, and for good reason. By the time it was broken up, Hell-No was winning (of course). They'd had to pull her off him from where she was pummeling his face in, screaming at him, "NEVER SAY THAT EVER AGAIN, ASSHOLE! YOU DEADBEAT CHAUVINIST IDIOT! YOU NO-BRAINED, TINY-DICKED PIG! YOU HEAR ME? YOU HEAR?" It was Tuesday, so she'd been given detention for the next five days. Really the rest of them weren't involved, but on Friday they'd all talked back to their teachers so they could keep her company on her second-to-last day. What they weren't expecting, however, was for Mr. Wronskey, the scary P.E. teacher, to drag them off to an old and disgusting supply closet and lock them in there to slave away with a filthy bucket of cleaning supplies for the duration of their six hours. _Ugh._ They got though it, though; at least they had each other, and it was consoling to think Hell-No didn't have to do it alone. Things really only started to get bad when they were finally done.

"Uh oh." They just around the corner from Hell-No and Smash's shack, where they often spent their afternoons, when Smash stopped dead in her tracks. "I lost my radio."

That was bad news. They each had a radio, which they used to communicate whenever they weren't together. Yeah, some people might call it a little old fashioned, but it let them talk to each other no matter where they were. Losing one not only meant you would be out of the loop, but that anyone who found it could listen in on their conversations. 

"I must have left it on the chair in Miss Massey's office."

"Shit!" Hell-No swore, leaning and banging her fist against the metal wall of the shack. "Shit, shit, _shit._ "

Luckily, they were them, so they came up with a plan in no time. The next Monday, Hell-No had her last day of detention. Since the others stayed out of trouble this time, she was alone, and they'd done a good enough job cleaning the supply closet already that Mr. Wronsky assigned her an essay to write instead. As soon as she was alone in Miss Massey's office, she climbed up on the desk and began to sprinkle a thick layer of cinnamon from a kitchen shaker on the arms of the ceiling fan. While she was in there, Christmas found a pair of her dad's big work shoes and dusted them with cinnamon on the bottom, stomping a trail of footprints from the door of the Principal's office that wound all the way around the school, zigging, zagging, and backtracking until it finally ended at the entrance to the boys bathroom on the other side of the school. With any luck, Miss Massey would follow the footprints, giving them enough time to dart into her office, find and grab the radio, and dash out of sight before she came back. They could only hope she'd be hot enough to turn on the fan, and she wouldn't notice the footprints until after she did. It was an easy hope to make-- August was sweltering in Wiggly.

Luckily, their assumptions proved true, as no sooner had school ended than a blood-curdling scream rang through the school, and a raging, coughing, extremely cinnamony principal threw open the door to her office. As she caught sight of the cinnamon trail and angrily began to follow it, Joseph hurried after her, hoping to distract her, and create a diversion if the need arose. Once they were out of sight, Christmas and Smash ran to the office and began their search. Anne-Marie stood outside the door, acting as lookout. Hell-No was their intimidation factor, so she stationed herself at the end of the hall, presumably to fight anyone who tried to get past her-- or, apparently, to grab any snitches.

Their plan had run smoothly, until Piper, who'd for some inexplicable reason stayed late after school, had heard about the incident through some frazzled teacher, caught sight of an anxious-looking Anne-Marie standing outside of the office door and heard a crashing noise coming from inside, put two and two together, and dashed the back way to catch up with Miss Massey before Hell-No could catch her. She intercepted the principal, who was still dutifully following the trail, and informed her, with no shortage of glee, that it was Anne-Marie and Hell-No who had carried out the attack and that one of their comrades was still in her office. Thankfully Anne-Marie spotted her and Joseph as they headed back around through the back window of the open cafeteria. As for Piper, Hell-No grabbed and tackled her as she came wheeling back around the corner triumphantly, before pull-push-dragging her to the library, their designated meeting place, and, well, the rest is history. 

"Let's promise that if Hell-No ever gets in another fight, the rest of us are _not_ going to detention with her. I'm all for moral support, but at this point, it's every man for himself," Joseph said, opening the library door and stepping inside. They all laughed, nodding, mostly because they all knew it wasn't true. The next time one of them got into a mess, the rest of them would fall right into it with them, and probably willfully. Even Hell-No cracked a grin, knowing that however much they may tease each other, when it came down to it, they loved each other more than anything. They were family. That's how families are.

At least, how families were supposed to be.

The five of them had a special bond; they built a family for each other, to replace the ones they didn’t have at home. Anne-Marie’s parents were the strictest Evangelicals in Wiggly and, as she liked to say, basically cardboard cutouts instead of people. They hardly let her go outside before they formed the Troop, and she could count on one hand the number of actual conversations she'd ever had with them. The last time they really knew her was when she was in preschool. As for Christmas and Joseph, they'd both lost their momma's young. Christmas loved her father, but it was lonely at home, especially with Miss Rayleen gone. She'd left nine years ago for law school, and while she came back to visit in the summers, it wasn't the same. While the Troop had helped Joseph's dad understand him better and be proud of the way his son already was, Joseph still felt pressure to impress him. He'd spent much of the summer before high school running and training with his dad so he could try out for the football team freshman year. He got in, and three years later he'd made it to varsity. Thanks to encouragement from his friends, though, he still spent most of his free time doing hair and filling notebooks with sketches of clothing designs so he'd have a portfolio for beauty school. Smash, for her part, lived with her grandmother, or Nana, as they all called her. When they were kids, Nana had always had her hands full, with her many jobs and the kids she was always babysitting, leaving Smash free to be, well, Smash. Nowadays, age was simply catching up with her. Her failing sight prevented her from working, so Smash took on odd jobs, fixing people's roofs and car engines. Luckily she enjoyed the work, and the solitude, but it was easier with her friends by her side.

As for Hell-No... well, it had taken Christmas months of dedicated friendship and a stubborn refusal to leave her alone to begin to wheedle the details of Hell-No's life out of her. Her parents were hardly around; when she was real little they'd lived altogether in a little house on Fourth Street. Christmas had seen her momma all of twice, and in the past few years she'd been entirely absent. Her daddy still owned the house on Fourth Street, but it was a gamble whether or not he'd be there when Hell-No got home, and whether or not he'd be sober. Most of the time he wasn't, on both counts. Sometimes it made Hell-No real angry and she lashed out, either at her friends, some kid who said the wrong thing and pissed her off (that more often than not resulted in a fight), or even at her daddy. That usually ended in a nasty-looking bruise on Hell-No's arm, or sometimes even a black eye. Christmas was pretty sure she hated Hell-No's dad, and lamented the fact she was too small and skinny to kick his ass. Maybe even kill him, if given the chance. Lanky and 17 she may be, but if Hell-No ever asked her, she'd have her hands around his throat before you could say Johnnie Walker. 

\--- 

An hour or two later, Christmas waved to Smash as she hurried out of the heat into her grandmother’s house, the last stop before Christmas’ on their walk home. Hell-No usually slunk off when they got to Smash’s and went wherever. Sometimes to her dad’s, sometimes to the shack, sometimes to one of their houses, and sometimes, Christmas suspected, she spent the night out in the woods. Just because she could. Well, that was Hell-No. Christmas threw her head back, listening to the crickets happily. She loved this about Alabama in the summer; the crickets came on around _ in the afternoon and chirped like mad all night long. Then, as soon as you woke up, they were gone. 

She tilted her head back down as the crunching of footsteps beside her didn't stop. Hell-No was still walking with her. Christmas tried not to smile too big.

“You funna go home?” She asked.

“Nah,” Hell-No shrugged. “Got nobody there today. No groceries. Figured I’d crash at your place.” She hesitated. “If that’s okay,” she finished, almost shyly— or, as shy as Hell-No Price could be.

“Of course. You know the Boss Man don’t care.” 

Hell-No nodded. 

“I know you’ll say no, but I still think you should come live with me.” Hell-No seemed to freeze for a moment before shaking her head. “Boss Man usually makes sure we don’t run out of groceries,” Christmas teased. Hell-No shook her head again.

“I just can’t, alright?”

“Alright.” They walked in silence again, save for the chirping of the crickets. Christmas closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply, taking in the syrupy summer smell that always came with heat this thick. Beside her, Hell-No seemed stiff and uncomfortable. Christmas drifted a tiny step closer to her until their hands brushed between their bodies. She locked her fingers in with the other girl’s rougher ones and brushed her thumb against her palm. By some miracle of nature unexpected to all, Christmas had ended up a good few inches taller than Hell-No, so the shorter girl's arm bent slightly (it wasn't like they'd had any way of knowing how tall they'd turn out, of course; it just came as a shock because Hell-No had such aggressive energy that you'd think she would've willed herself to be the tallest-- she probably would've, if she could've). Much to her delight, Hell-No seemed to relax slightly. Christmas tightened her grip and began to swing their joined hands back and forth, swinging higher and higher until she was almost going full circle. Hell-No giggled.

“You funna yank out my shoulder,” she said through her laughter.

“Not if I yank mine out first,” Christmas said back, grinning. They crossed onto Christmas' street and she started to skip wildly, pulling Hell-No with her.

"You stupid idiot!" Hell-No laughed against her shoulder, knocking into her as they skipped crazily, the combination of the heat and Hell-No next to her making Christmas feel giddy, pulling her knees up ridiculously. They tripped to a stop as they reached her front door.

"Maybe," Christmas said slyly, "but I'm _your_ stupid idiot." 

Hell-No just rolled her eyes, but she didn't let go of her hand. 

Later, they sat sprawled on the old lawn chair on the patio, talking over hastily-made bowls of Kraft Mac 'N' Cheese. Their conversation drifted between topics, eventually coming around to their stunt that afternoon, and specifically, Piper's inexplicable involvement.

"God, I hate her," Hell-No muttered, stabbing angrily at her empty bowl with her fork. "Why does she need to get involved in everything we ever do? It's fucking pathetic, honestly."

Christmas snorted.

"I think she's still jealous that we got on that record for a whole two minutes longer than she did."

Hell-No rolled her eyes, laughing lightly.

"That was _years_ ago. Wish she'd just grow up and get over it." She sighed, putting her bowl on the ground next to Christmas'. She scooted down in the lawn chair and curled until her head was in Christmas' lap, yawning. "I'm plumb tired."

"Me too. Stealing will do that to you, I guess."

Hell-No grunted indignantly.

"You know as well as me it wasn't stealing, it was taking _back._ There's a whole lot of difference." 

Christmas grinned.

"I know. I'm only teasing." She leaned her head back and peered up at the sky. "The stars are bright tonight." Hell-No wiggled a little on her lap, adjusting so she faced upwards. Christmas scooted down until she was just at an angle on the chair, so the other girl' head rested on her stomach just below her ribcage, her curls tickling under the hem of Christmas' ridden-up shirt.

"I forget how good this place is for looking at the stars," Hell-No said sleepily. "You can see 'em all. All the constellations." She reached a hand out and pointed to a grouping of stars to the right of their field of vision. "That's Orion, right?"

Christmas nodded. "The Hunter." She sighed happily. "I love the stars."

Hell-No yawned again. "I know you do."

"There's just something so magic about them. I mean, they're so far away that if we were closer, each one would be a great big fireball as big as the sun. But from here on Earth they're just little sparkles. They've been around for longer than any of us could even think of, but here they are putting on a little show every night in a big old theater just for us. And those same stars will put on their same show for our children and their children and so on for hundreds and thousands and millions of years. Except when they die, of course." She closed her eyes in longing, imagining. "That I'd love to see. Imagine how it would be to watch a great big star explode and send all that burning, glowing beauty out in all directions." Her voice faded to a whisper. "Maybe it'll happen someday and we'll get to watch."

"They are a little like magic. I always wanted to touch one when I was little." Hell-No turned her head again to burrow against Christmas' skin, neck tucked against the curve of her hip.

Christmas felt her lips twitch up into a lopsided grin. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, and Christmas found herself suddenly aware of the gentle swoosh of air that sang across her skin each time Hell-No breathed. She let her hand come up and gently touch the tips of her hair, ghosting over her head to the edge of her scalp. Christmas lightly pressed her fingers down, barely massaging, tracing patterns over her hairline.

“Know what,” Hell-No whispered, her breath humming lightly against Christmas’ ribs, “the stars remind me of you.”

“Really?” Christmas murmured.

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“They’re golden. Like your hair. And shiny, like you. Big and bright and full of something special. They’re permanent and I can’t never forget them.”

Christmas smiled slightly, running her hand down through the tips of Hell-No’s hair. She took a curl and wrapped it around her finger, twisting slowly, soothing.

“That all?”

“No,” Hell-No breathed, her voice a sleepy murmur now. 

"What else?"

"The stars are pretty," she whispered, "but they're more too. They're beautiful."

Christmas felt her heart trip and could have sworn it stopped for a moment. She felt herself blush instantly, silently thankful for the darkness as the gentle heat spread from her cheeks down her neck and across her sternum. She had thought herself aware before, but all at once she was hyper-aware of the feeling of Hell-No against her; the smooth flush of her cheek against her stomach, the warm tickle of her breath, the flutter of her eyelashes as her eyes closed had Christmas' skin erupting in goosebumps. She shivered lightly, even though the air was still sticky and thick with heat.

Hell-No yawned gently one last time. "I think they're so beautiful."

Christmas let her hand still in her hair, just resting against her head, barely having noticed her heartbeat seemed to have resumed double-time. A soft, heady feeling of joy began to creep up her body, from her toes all the way up until it reached her upper body and curled in her chest. 

"Good night, Hell-No," she whispered, or maybe just breathed.

"'Night," Hell-No murmured in the softest of tones. The word floated like a butterfly across Christmas' skin until it joined its friends in the pit of her stomach. All at once she realized she was practically beaming.

Hell-No was already deep in slumber, but Christmas didn't fall asleep for more than an hour afterwards. She was still smiling too hard. 

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaah the fluff! I had a lot of fun with the group dynamics in the beginning-- I really felt like after everything that happened in the movie, they'd all be bonded and stick together from then on. I also really enjoyed writing Hell-No and Christmas' relationship, and how close they are. I'm excited for this fic, so wish me luck and a lack of writers block please!!! Hope everyone's doing okay in quarantine. Hang in there! (Also, yes, the chapter titles are going to be from one of my favorite songs. If anyone can guess what song it is, you get a cookie and a big hug-- virtual ones, of course.)


End file.
